Why was this... so bad? I had so much fun with Big Little Lies and this just lacked everything that that book had.
The mystery was hardly a mystery. ItWhy was this... so bad? I had so much fun with Big Little Lies and this just lacked everything that that book had.
The mystery was hardly a mystery. It felt like it smacked you in the face. When you are introduced to a character that has a "major secret" and then you are introduced to a character who is obsessively wondering (view spoiler)[who murdered her daughter all those years ago (hide spoiler)], it becomes pretty obvious that (view spoiler)[the husband's secret is that he murdered a 17-year-old girl because she didn't want to be his girlfriend and she laughed at him (hide spoiler)].
Speaking of, what a terrible reason. What an especially terrible reason considering that (view spoiler)[he doesn't even get his fucking due. John-Paul makes a point of being like "oh, I've denied myself from joy as penance for this murder I committed" except that he didn't deny himself 1) falling in love, 2) getting married, or 3) fathering 3 children and creating this apparently "perfect" family. Oh no, he just denied himself rowing and made sure to do extra community service, then stressed out about whether it "counted" because turns out, he enjoys community service! (hide spoiler)]
I don't even know why Tess's storyline was included in this novel. It was so tangentially related to the actual plot. Even though she (view spoiler)[reignited her romance with Connor Whitby, we learned so early in the novel that he didn't actually kill Janie, even though Rachel believes it with all her heart. The reader knew Connor was innocent, Connor never came to learn that Rachel had "new evidence," and Connor maybe beat himself up more than fucking John-Paul did. (hide spoiler)].
I am actually really mad about the outcomes of both (view spoiler)[Connor and Polly. These people were innocent and were TOTALLY fucked over by the actions of others in ways that neither of them deserved. I was rooting for Tess and Connor. There was nothing redeeming about Will, whose midlife crisis made him admit to his wife that he was in love with her cousin and then instantly 1) break the cousin's heart, and 2) break the wife's heart. Connor, who didn't deserve to have Tess just because Will didn't, was still left in the dust and treated so poorly as a character. In the epilogue, Moriarty even goes as far as to give him such anxiety and depression about his role in Polly's accident that his therapy "funds Year 9 of his therapist's daughter's schooling." In reality, Polly's accident is supposed to be some "cosmic justice" for John-Paul's murder of Janie. He murdered Rachel's daughter, so Rachel (accidentally) disfigures Polly while trying to hurt who she THINKS is the murderer. And Rachel, who has been furious toward Connor Whitby and even goes so far as to TRY AND MURDER HIM, does absolutely nothing to John-Paul once she finds out he is the true murderer. She sees that he loves his kids and just... lets him be. But oh: she still doesn't like Connor Whitby. She can't ever get over that, for some reason. (hide spoiler)]
Also WHAT was the point of making it so that Janie was actually (view spoiler)[in love with John-Paul? Now she loved her murderer too? And her mother had the audacity to think "You chose the wrong boy, darling," and consider that "she would have lived if she'd chosen John-Paul" (406). (hide spoiler)] OH, and then Moriarty reveals in the epilogue that (view spoiler)[even though the characters don't know it, John-Paul didn't really murder her! She had a health condition that, had she not gone to break up with John-Paul, would have been discovered that very day and she would have been saved!
This was just really bad. And I don't know why. Big Little Lies was so much more satisfying of a read, a mystery, and an ending. (hide spoiler)]...more
3.5 stars, really. I really enjoyed it, couldn't put it down for 3 days--but the dialogue got under my skin for being a little unrealistic, it was a l3.5 stars, really. I really enjoyed it, couldn't put it down for 3 days--but the dialogue got under my skin for being a little unrealistic, it was a little too long, and it's not the kind of book that I would reread. However, I loved it because it was exactly what I was looking for. I'd been in a reading slump and needing something like this.
The novel follows 3 kindergarten mothers in Australia as they get entrenched in the ridiculousness of school politics. Madeline, the ringleader of sorts, likes to stir the pot and hold grudges. Throughout the novel her biggest grudges are against her ex-husband and his new wife Bonnie--as well as Renatta, a fellow kindy parent and career woman who is more like Madeline than maybe she'd like to admit. Her beef with Renatta is actually linked to the 2nd mother, Jane, who is new to the peninsula and a single parent with zipped lips about her son Ziggy's father. At kindy orientation, Ziggy is accused at kindy orientation of choking Renatta's daughter Amabella (that's with an "M;" it's French, as Renatta will tell anyone who will listen) and Renatta is out for blood. Ziggy adamantly denies the accusation, and Jane believes him, although doubts weigh heavy in her mind. Madeline takes Jane under her wing, and the class splits in two, Amabella supporters against Ziggy supporters. Madeline's best friend is Celeste, a beautiful and rich woman who is always a little bit distracted. She would rather not be entrenched in these dramas, as she's got enough to worry about. Her life is picture perfect, and her husband Perry's Facebook profile is proof. They have a gorgeous house with a view of the beach, enough money for Celeste to donate 25K to charity on a whim, and whenever Perry is not out of town for work, he loves doing rap dances with their twin sons and cooking them special breakfasts. But secrets lurk in all of these women's lives in ways that nobody else would understand.
The novel opens with a horrible scene from the school's fundraising Trivia Night. The novel then shifts back in time and is interspersed with a Greek chorus of supporting characters recapping the events that leads to the death of a parent, now being investigated as a murder. We don't know who the victim or the murderer is, but we slowly learn the secrets these women are keeping and Moriarty keeps us guessing the entire time with different possible motives for different possible victims. I guessed a lot along the way, but the end was a total surprise. ...more
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